1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to oil film bearings and neck seals for rolls in a rolling mill, and is concerned in particular with an improved means for resisting centrifugal seal distortion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical rolling mill oil film bearings and neck seals are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,165,881 and 4,586,720. In these arrangements, the flexible neck seals are subjected to centrifugal forces tending to pull them away from the tapered sections of the roll necks on which they are mounted. Over the years, embedded and/or externally applied metallic reinforcements have been added to the seal bodies to resist centrifugal distortion.
A primary objective of the present invention is to further improve upon the ability of the neck seals to withstand centrifugal forces.
A companion objective of the present invention is to resist centrifugal distortion of the neck seals without resort to additional embedded and/or externally applied metallic reinforcements.